Research: Boeotia, Phocis, and Attica

Last night I finished my regional map for Attica (best known for the city of Athens). It joins my other regional maps, including Phocis (does the oracle at Delphi ring a bell?) and Boeotia (Thebes. Oh my gosh, Thebes). These regional maps aren’t really complete, so much they are, uh, well mostly complete. I tweak them as I go.

One of the funny things I ran into while working on Attica is the fact that many of the Mycenaean forts and settlements are well-known, but my source was rife with misspellings. One particularly egregious example was “Sparta.” If you know your geography, you know that Sparta is in the Peloponnese, not Attica.

Turns out it was supposed to be Spata.

Little things like that amused me along the way. I also found some really cool photos of a temple in a town I’d never even heard of, “Brauron,” where Artemis was venerated. Go ahead and check that one out on Wikipedia, it’s pretty cool. Also, I’m trying really hard not to make “bro” jokes. Because, well, you know. It’s just dumb.

Next on my list should be Euboea. Really, it should really be Euboea. Because that’s where I’m going to set Rumors of War. But I’m probably going to work on Corinth and the Argolid next, and that isn’t because I’m procrastinating. See, there are a couple major myths I have to place before I can make up too much of my own stuff.

Those three major mythical arcs are the Argonautica (Jason and the Argonauts), the Labors of Heracles, and the Trojan War. They’re the ones that everyone knows best, and they’re the ones I have to get “right” before I can get anything else “wrong.” A few details have to remain consistent, or no one will recognize the stories.

Moreover, while I intend to simplify and streamline the myths, so they fit in a more easily-digestible timeline, I also want to retain a lot of their, uh, what’s that word that Wizards of the Coast keeps using to justify each new edition of D&D? <di — oh self-deprecating humor, thou art a harsh mistress> You know, iconic stuff.

Anyway, I’ve figured out where the Trojan War fits in the timeline, and it’s mostly thanks to the work I’ve done on the “Theban epoch,” which I’m using to refer to Thebes’s colorful history. I found where Oedipus fits, and then I figured out where Heracles fits into the history. Jason is all that’s left, and for that, I’m need his homeland in Argolis.